IPL 2017 Captaincy Ratings: Where The Leaders Rank After The League Stages?

May 15, 2017 at 6:09 PM

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IPL 2017 Captaincy Ratings: Where The Leaders Rank After The League Stages?

After much twists and turn, league stage of the IPL 2017 is over.  As anticipated some teams lived up to the expectations while others fell flat on their nose.

Mumbai Indians, Rising Pune Supergiant, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad will now feature in the playoffs while the underperforming Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Daredevils, Gujarat Lions and Royal Challengers Bangalore will be busy introspecting.

The captains, of every team, especially will be judged for their leadership. The ones who have managed to carry their tea ahead will have the challenge continuing the winning rhythm while the other who failed badly will be facing some criticism.

Virat Kohli – 2.5/10:

Virat Kohli would simply want to forget this season. He would have never expected such a torrid time to arrive in the 10th season, especially after their miraculous journey to the finals last season. Kohli missed the first three matches as he was recovering from injury. His side managed just one win out those matches and was expected to perform better with the arrival of its Most Valuable Player (MVP). However, things did not change at all as the side kept plunging in the points table before ending up as the wooden spooners.

Shane Watson – 2/10:

Shane Watson acted as the stand – in captain for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the absence of Virat Kohli. He captained the side for three games at the start of this edition before handing over the responsibility to Kohli. Although three matches are pretty much not considerable to judge a player as a captain, Watson failed to inspire his junior mates to perform to their standards. Personally, he failed with the bat and was not up to the standard with the ball as well.

Glenn Maxwell – 7/10:

Glenn Maxwell may have received some blunt words from Virender Sehwag. But, in all Maxi did a fantastic job as the captain. A fact many people overlooked was the Aussie dasher was leading a side for the first time in his career. The result and the personal contributions he made in taking the team ahead were commendable if not extraordinary. He did a good job managing the batting order and the inconsistent bowling attack whose senior most players was the biggest chink in the armour. In all, Punjab finished at the 5th position in the points table with 7 wins and as many losses in 14 matches.

Zaheer Khan – 5/10:

Zaheer Khan bowed out of the IPL with a loss at the hands of the RCB. The loss in the final game was much similar to their performances in the rest of the league stage. The Daredevils side simply failed to keep up the consistency and notch up wins on a regular basis and become a strong contender in the playoffs race. Zaheer mostly remained less experimental and tried using the best names in his squad. He also somewhat failed to inspire the best out of them which reflect in the record of 6 wins in 14 matches.

Suresh Raina – 3.5/10:

Suresh Raina was a helpless skipper at Gujarat Lions. As an individual, he continued his domination in the IPL by registering another 300 plus runs season. However, he ended as a big failure when it came to leading his side. There were very high expectations from him and his Lions’ men after a sensational debut season last year. But, injuries to key players like Andrew Tye and Dwayne Bravo and losses in key games hurt their chances badly. Also, Raina seemed to be very shy when it came to making drastic changes in the XI and only resorted to bringing in newer players when the pressure was totally on him and his men.

Steven Smith – 8/10:

Steven Smith has proved his worth as a captain by successfully replacing the MS Dhoni. Many doubted his capability of leading an IPL side. It felt like a hasty decision by the RPS management. But, the moves paid off very nicely as RPS is now readying for the qualifiers after finishing as the second-ranked team in the points table at the end of the league stage. Smith rotated his players to a good extent, a couple of underrated names like Rahul Tripathi and Jaydev Unadkat rose to the top while stars like Ben Stokes and Imran Tahir were at their best. All these factors combined Smith’s brainy tactics has now made RPS one of the favourites to win the 10 edition.

Gautam Gambhir – 6.5/10:

Few points less for Gambhir; largely for losing the plot in the latter parts of the league stage. From most of the time, KKR was the dominant team. However, out of their last five matches, all they could manage was just one win. Obviously, giving away the chances of finishing at the top of the points table, especially at a time when other teams are contesting strongly for the same spot, proved very bad. Gambhir can be held responsible for this. He almost stuck with the same team. Underuse of Shakib al Hasan and Piyush Chawla and complete neglect of all-rounder Rovman Powell were some of the drawbacks. Sunil Narine saved him from some criticism by hitting a 15 fifty otherwise the Wets Indian was also not a great experiment after the initial stages.

Rohit Sharma – 9/10:

Rohit Sharma must receive full credits for Mumbai Indians superb success. He almost did everything right. The decision to send Nitish Rana up in the batting order proved great for them during chases. He also rotated his players according to the needs and also tested his bench strength with great success in the last game against Kolkata Knight Riders. At the individual level, Rohit also managed to overcome his form issues, not entirely but to some extent.

David Warner – 8.5/10:

David Warner somehow managed to steer his team into the playoffs. As usual, the team was over-reliant on him and failed almost every time their skipper could not do well.

Warner did take care of the added responsibility smartly. A couple of tactics paid off well. Trust shown on Siddharth Kaul and Mohammad Siraj gave good returns. Also, he banked upon the experience of all-rounders Moises Henriques and Yuvraj Singh and gave them regular chances. This move also ended up as a good decision.

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